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No Way Out (2004)
No Way Out (2004) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on February 15, 2004 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. It was the sixth event produced under the No Way Out name and starred wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand. The event is best remembered for the main event, which saw Eddie Guerrero defeat WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to win the title, his sole world championship before his death in 2005. In the undercard, Kurt Angle defeated The Big Show and John Cena in a Triple Threat match to earn a title match for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania XX. Furthermore, Chavo Guerrero defeated Rey Mysterio. No Way Out grossed over US$450,000 ticket sales from an attendance of approximately 11,000 and received 350,000 pay-per-view buys, and was instrumental in helping WWE increase its pay-per-view revenue by $11.9 million compared to the previous year. Like the event, the DVD received favorable reviews. Storylines The event consisted of eight professional wrestling matches with wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers belonged to the SmackDown! brand – a storyline division in which WWE assigned its employees to a different program, the other being Raw. After winning a 15-man battle royal (a match in which participants are eliminated until one person remains as the winner) on the January 29, 2004 episode of SmackDown!, Eddie Guerrero earned the right to challenge for the WWE Championship at No Way Out against the champion, Brock Lesnar in a standard wrestling match, also known as a singles match. Outside the storyline with Guerrero, Lesnar was involved in a staged rivalry with Goldberg, a member of the Raw program. The feud between Lesnar and Goldberg began at the Royal Rumble, WWE's previous pay-per-view event which involved both brands. Lesnar interfered in the Royal Rumble match, a 30-man battle royal, attacking and eliminating Goldberg from the match. On the week of January 26, 2004, Lesnar and Goldberg conducted promotional in-ring segments on respective episodes of Raw and SmackDown!, in which they insulted each other. The following week on an episode of Raw, as a result of the rivalry extending between the two programs, General Manager Steve Austin gave Goldberg the option of attending No Way Out by giving him a front-row ticket. That Thursday on SmackDown!, the storyline between Guerrero and Lesnar was enhanced when they began a brawl after an in-ring interview segment. On the February 5, 2004 episode of SmackDown!, the General Manager Paul Heyman scheduled a Triple Threat match between The Big Show, Kurt Angle and John Cena for No Way Out. The winner of that match would face the WWE Champion at WrestleMania XX for the title. The rivalry continued to develop the following week, when Angle was scheduled to team with Guerrero to face The Big Show and Lesnar, though the latter was portrayed as being unconscious backstage. Cena then replaced Angle in the match and defeated the opposition with Guerrero. In February 2004, WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio produced "Crossing Borders", which was No Way Out's official theme song. In this storyline, Chavo Guerrero became jealous of the attention Mysterio garnered as a result of recording the song. Therefore, Heyman promoted a match between the two at No Way Out for the WWE Cruiserweight title during the February 5, 2004 episode of SmackDown!. The following week on SmackDown!, Mysterio was accompanied by Jorge Páez, a professional boxer and childhood friend of Mysterio who appeared in his "Crossing Borders" music video, to his match against Tajiri. Mysterio defeated Tajiri but was attacked by Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero, Sr.after the match until Paez intervened and helped Mysterio. Aftermath At WrestleMania XX, WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero defeated challenger Kurt Angle via pinfall and retained his title. John "Bradshaw" Layfield, portraying a new character after the semi-retirement of his tag team partner Faarooq, challenged Guerrero for the WWE Championship and defeated him at The Great American Bash to win the title. Guerrero failed to recapture the title from Layfield in a steel cage match on SmackDown!. After Guerrero's death in November 2005, WWE held Tribute Shows on Raw and SmackDown! During these programs, No Way Out was the main highlight of Guerrero's career, as it was where he won his only World Championship. John Cena began a rivalry with The Big Show over his WWE United States Championship and, at WrestleMania XX, Cena defeated Show to win the title. Goldberg and Lesnar continued their rivalry, leading to a match promoted at WrestleMania XX, in which Goldberg defeated Lesnar. After their match, Goldberg and Lesnar left the company, although Lesnar would make his return in April 2012 and Goldberg made his return in October 2016. Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero's storyline over the WWE Cruiserweight Championship also continued, culminating in a battle royal match at WrestleMania XX involving other wrestlers. Guerrero last eliminated Mysterio to retain his title in this match. After the Draft Lottery, a mock sports draft lottery in which wrestlers switched programs, Rico was drafted to SmackDown!, while Shelton Benjamin was drafted to Raw, in the process splitting up The World's Greatest Tag Team. Afterward, Haas and Rico won the WWE Tag Team Championship from Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty on SmackDown! Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * No Way Out Category:No Way Out Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2004 Pay-Per-View Events